Numericable Group (ENXTPA:NUM) won the bid to acquire Société Française de Radiotéléphone SACA from Vivendi Société Anonyme (ENXTPA:VIV) on March 14, 2014. Numericable Group will pay €11.8 billion and a 32% share in the equity of the combined listed entity, if exclusive talks over the next three weeks are successful. Numericable has secured the backing of a syndicate of nine international banks to back the offer. Of the €11.8 billion to be paid as consideration in cash, €8.35 billion will be secured through debt and €3.4 billion to be raised through a capital increase. As of April 5, 2014, Supervisory Board of Vivendi unanimously selected the Numericable offer. As of April 6, 2014, Numericable Group will pay €13.5 billion in cash and 20% share in the equity of the combined listed entity. Numericable Group may also pay earn-out of €750 million. The offer represents a total value of approximately €17 billion. Also, Vivendi can at a later stage sell its 20% stake according to set terms.

On April 23, 2014, it was announced that Numericable Group will increase the size of the bond issue and reduce the bank loan. Under the terms of the transaction, Numericable Group will issue €8.4 billion of bonds, instead of €6.04 billion and expects to borrow €1.09 billion ($1.5 billion), instead of €2.03 billion ($2.8 billion). As on June 20, 2014, the parties entered into a definitive agreement for the transaction. The new management team of SFR will comprise of Patrick Drahi who will assume the presidency of the new group alongside Eric Denoyer, future General Manager. Philippe Le May will replace Pierre-Alain Allemand for the management of the network, and Olivier Urcel will take control of the operator's information systems. Another loyal executive, Jérôme Yomtov, Vice General Manager of the cable operator will also be part of the team like Thierry Lemaître who worked under Ernst & Young and France Télécom, who is also the financial director of Numericable. He will replace Sandrine Dufour as the head of finances at SFR. The HR director, François Rubichon will retain his position just like Hervé Matthieu Ricour who is in charge of the development of specific projects. Angélique Benetti, a content specialist will also be part of the new management team. Jean-Yves, Chief Executicve Officer of SFR will exit SFR and will advise Patrick Drahi, the president the Board of Directors for several months. Frank Cadoret, consumer and business executive director of SFR, Jean-Marc Lazzari, the Business Team Director, the Corporate Branch and Olivier Henrard, the secretary general will exit SFR. Eric Klipfel , will have the same responsibility in the merged group. Eric Pradeau will be the Director of the same operators division, Angélique Benetti, also the contents director, Olivier Ursel will be in charge of information systems. Pascal Rialland, the current managing director of Virgin Mobile was also integrated into the new assembly will take charge of the general consumer business particularly the distribution network. The closing of the agreement is subject to certain conditions, in particular obtaining approval from regularoty authorities. Société Française de Radiotéléphone SACA reported revenues of €10.2 billion and EBITDA of €2.8 billion for the year ended December 31, 2013. The completion remains subject to the approval of the general shareholder assembly of Numericable, which will be held on November 27, 2014, with the goal of approving the contribution of shares. The deal is expected to close before the end of 2014. As of November 19, 2014, the transaction is expected to close on November 27, 2014.

As of October 27, 2014, The French Competition Authority conditionally approved the deal. Numericable has to sell Outremer Telecom mobile telephone activities in La Réunion and Mayotte. Thierry Varène of BNP Paribas, Société Générale CIB and Citigroup, Pierre Tattevin, Vincent Le Stradic, Malo Corbin, Qiongyan Shao, Pauline Berthoud, Gilles Tre-Hardy, Nathalie Sogno, Bruno Roger, Matthieu Pigasse, Evan Russo, Tomer Perry of Lazard Frères Banque SA acted as financial advisors to Vivendi Société Anonyme. Alexandre Marque, Kai Völpel, Djésia Meziani, Laurent Halimi, Jérôme Michel, Magali Masson, Christian Sauer, Virginie Brault-Scaillet, Viktoriya Bukina, Paloma Champilou, Nay Kettaneh, Charles Amar, Olivier Borenstejn. Jean-Pierre Delvigne, Bradley Joslove and Eléonore Varet of Frankin - Société d'avocats acted as legal advisors to Altice and Numericable. Marcus Billam, Frédéric Moreau, Frédéric Jungels, Catherine Maison-Blanche, Jean-Baptiste de Martigny, Frédérique Dugué, Anne-Caroline Payelle, Ioana Nicolas, Flora Leon-Serviere, Alexandre Durand, Roderick Cork, Jean-Christophe David and Yasmine Boïk-Bouhedjar of Allen & Overy acted as legal advisors to Vivendi. Claude Lazarus, Dominique Bompoint, Veil Jourde with J. Veil, Charles de Réals and Louis-François Guéret of Bompoint Avocats and Claude Lazarus and Julie Catala Marty of Bird & Bird acted as legal advisors to Vivendi. Laurent Borey, Olivier Parawan, Nathalie Jacquart and Nicolas Danan of Mayer Brown France, Jonathan Nabarro, Blandine Gény of Nabarro & Hinge and Alex Griffiths, Benoît Lavigne of Ropes & Gray acted as legal advisors for Altice, parent of Numericable. Bernard Mourad of Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan acted as financial advisor to Numericable. Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank S.A. acted as financial advisor for Numericable Group. Perella Weinberg Partners acted as financial advisor to the Board of Directors of Numericable. Arthur Dreyfuss, Anne Descamps, Charles Fleming of Havas acted as public relations advisors for Numericable Group. Marie-Gabrielle Sorin of Vae Solis Corporate acted as public relation advisor to Numericable Group. François Sureau, Lou Salome Sorlin and Christophe Le Berre of Cabinet François Sureau, Benjamine Fiedler of Bird & Bird and Marie-Laurence Tibi, Charlotte Beroud and Marine Bouhy of Cleary Gottlieb acted as legal advisors for Numericable. Emmanuelle Barbara of August & Debouzy acted as legal advisor for Vivendi. Darrois Villey Maillot Brochier acted as legal advisor for Bouygues, the other bidder. Barclays actied as financial advisor to Numericable. Bank of America Merrill Lynch acted as financial advisor for Vivendi. Daniel Hurstel and Dominque Mondoloni of Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP acted as legal advisors to Goldman Sachs. Deutsche Bank AG acted as financial advisor for Vivendi. Etienne Gentil, Dan Maze, Scott Colwell and Melissa Alwang of Latham & Watkins LLP acted as the legal advisors to Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan. Eric Sublon, Laurent Massinon, Agathe Laissus, Darius Bitu, Selim Souissi and Yann Spiegelhalter of Luther Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft mbH acted as legal advisors for Numericable Group. The currency conversions were made through www.oanda.com on April 23, 2014. Veil Jourde acted as legal advisor to Vivendi with Jean Veil , André Dupont-Jubien , Pierre Deval , Géraud Saint Guilhem , partners, in corporate and Emmanuel Glaser , in public law.